Washing machines



July 28, 1 959 wuc ETAL 2,896,437

WASHING MACHINES Filed May 22, 1956 INVENTOR I Kw m M a; law

ATVIOR EY United States Pat WASHING MAQHINES Karl Wuck, Styria, and Alois Kresse, Leoben, Austria I Application May 22, 1956, Serial No. 586,413

Claims priority, application Austria June 1, 1955 1 Ciaim. c1. 68-433 The present invention relates to a rotor for washing machines, which causes a circulating movement and an oscillatory movement of the washing liquid.

It has been proposed already to design such rotors so that they are provided at their effective end with only a single beveled face extending throughout the rotor surface or with two bevelled faces declining from the outer edge of the rotor towards the center of the rotor.

In the first case a disadvantage is apparent, since a pronounced unidirectional action results, which causes the laundry to be carried along in the direction of circulation and to be twisted together. Moreover, said unidirectional action tends to produce a pronounced vibration of the laundry container.

Whereas these disadvantages are largely avoided by the design described in the second place, the latter has the disadvantage that the interaction with the container wall, which is very important for the circulating movement of the washing liquid (mainly in containers having a periphery of rectangular or square outline) is almost entirely absent, so that only a relatively small washing efiect is achievable.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a washing machine, wherein the disadvantages of the known structures are eliminated.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a washing machine wherein the rotor is bevelled on its face facing the interior of the container from the center towards at least two sides so as to decline outwardly in the shape of an inclined roof.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a washing machine which includes a rotor shaped in such manner that it will cause, mainly owing to its roof-like face, a very intimate interaction with the container wall (particularly in containers having a rectangular or square periphery), without any pronounced twisting of the laundry or vibration of the laundry container.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a washing machine wherein the ridge edge of the roofshaped rotor face extends preferably along a diameter of the rotor and the inclination of the roof faces forms an angle of at most 30 degrees with the bottom face of the rotor, which extends at right angles to the axis of rotation.

The said bottom face may be provided in conventional manner with ribs, which act like the blades of a centrifugal pump to prevent a penetration of laundry into the clearance between the rotor and the bottom recess gndkto enable the washing liquid to be pumped off or It is also a further object of the present invention to provide a washing machine wherein the rotor is incorporated in the bottom of a centrifugal drum, because this arrangement permits of alternate washing and centrifuging, to remove the washing liquid if the rotor and centrifugal drum are alternately stopped.

With these and other objects in view which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

2,89%,437 Patented July 28, 1959 Figure 1 is a diagrammatic axial sectional view of the washing machine along the lines 11 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof.

Referring now to the drawing, the laundry container 1 is provided near its bottom surface in with at least one rotor 2, which is substantially of fiat, disc-like shape and rotates in a recess 1b of the bottom face la. The clearance between the rotor and recess is as small as possi ble. The periphery of the laundry container 1 has the usual rectangular or square outline.

The top face of the rotor Z is bevelled towards two sides to decline outwardly like a roof, eg from a ridge edge extending along a diameter of the rotor 2, thus forming two downwardly inclined top faces 2a and 2b of the rotor 2.

The bottom face 20 of the rotor is provided with ribs 4, which rotate in an appropriately shaped casing chamber 5 as blades of a centrifugal pump. This centrifugal pump sucks as usual adjacent to the rotor axis, eg. through the small bores 6 close to the center of the rotor Z, and serves the purpose to urge the washing liquid back through the peripheral clearance between the rotor and the container bottom in order to prevent a penetration of laundry into said clearance and to enable washing liquid to be pumped off or back through the connection 7.

Practical tests have proved that this action of the rotor on the washing liquid causes an oscillatory movement and a continuous circulating movement thereof. The intensity of that action will mainly depend on the chronological succession in which the elevated and depressed parts of the periphery of the rotor are effective at one and the same point of the bottom. As is well known, several rotors may be used instead of a single one, in order to further improve the ratio between the rotor face and bottom face.

As has been mentioned the rotor or rotors may be incorporated in a centrifugal drum, whereby the machine can be operated alternately as a washing machine and as a centrifuge.

While we have disclosed one embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that this embodiment is given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claim.

We claim:

A washing machine comprising a container having a plurality of walls, one of said walls having a substantially circular recess at its center, a substantially disk-shaped rotor rotatably mounted in said circular recess of said one of said walls, and said disk-shaped rotor having an end face facing the interior of said container and con sisting exclusively of two smooth top faces inclined from a top edge line disposed along a diameter of said diskshaped rotor downwardly towards the peripheral edge of said disk-shaped rotor, each of said two inclined top faces being disposed in a plane forming an angle of no more than 30 degrees to a plane extending perpendicular to the axis of rotation of said rotor.

References titted in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,741,191 Kirby Dec. 31, 1929 1,782,684 Gibson Nov. 25, 1930 1,859,033 Gibson May 17, 1932 2,021,097 Maus Nov. 13, 1935 2,228,214 Holland Jan. 7, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,003,993 France Nov. 21, 1951 1,013,461 France Apr. 30, 1952 1,049,093 France Aug. 12, 1953 

